AI summary
Summary of article:
After serious vulnerabilities in PHP were revealed, governments and companies around the world rushed to fix and prevent site security. The hacker attack attempts grew to millions in a short period of time, affecting websites and major services in many countries.
A serious vulnerability has been revealed in PHP, the programming language that supports the operation of the Internet. Today, companies and governments around the world are intensifying efforts to fix it. Banks, airlines, railways and government websites have immediately suspended services in many countries.hacker Attacks have been attempted millions of times.
Reuters reported that PHP, HTML, and Python are both important computer programming languages. The PHP development team yesterday released a patch for a vulnerability that was hidden for years and was recently discovered by artificial intelligence (AI), and called on users to “update now.”
Following the news yesterday, governments in Europe and other regions have shut down some websites as a precaution, while website operators are busy strengthening the security of systems running PHP. This not only highlights how much governments and companies rely on this little-understood code, but also presents one of the most severe tests the world has faced in relying on PHP in decades.
Microsoft (Microsoft ) CEO Satya Nadella said at an event in Germany today: “I haven’t seen this situation for a long time.” He said the incident shows that as systems become increasingly complex, it has become even more important to create software that can be secure and consistently maintained.
Madeline Lawrence, co-founder of Belgian security company Aikido Security, said details of the vulnerability leaked before the patch was ready. Since then, attacks have been reported one after another, and companies are racing against hackers who can use AI to launch attacks.
Matthew Prince, CEO of cloud services provider Cloudflare, told the social platform
If we look at the world, Japan has been especially affected. Nomura, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), All Nippon Airways (ANA), JR East, as well as the Ministry of Finance, the Meteorological Agency, and the Japan National Tax Agency have suspended some network services; Data shows that Japan recorded more network security incidents in the first nine months of this year than last year.
French telecommunications giant Orange has also taken a precautionary stance by suspending certain websites and applications built with PHP in several of its subsidiaries; Tencent Cloud, a large Chinese cloud service provider, called on customers to update PHP versions, but did not require mass website shutdowns.
After shutting down the government’s public website a day earlier, Finnish state-owned information services agency Valtori installed patches overnight and gradually restored services.
Several Asian governments also ordered security inspections targeting PHP vulnerabilities today. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology called on all entities and users to check their systems and upgrade to the latest security version; South Korea raised private sector cybersecurity alert level and initiated emergency response measures.
Felix Kuhlenkamp, director of the security department of the German Information Business Communication New Media Association (Bitcom), said that many big players have completed the update, but complex information systems and smaller organizations may take longer.
Summary FAQ
-
Because PHP is the main programming language of many government, bank, aviation, and corporate websites, hackers have discovered vulnerabilities and exploited them rapidly. If not updated promptly, the system in question may be attacked or crippled.
-
Cloudflare reported that there were thousands of attack attempts in the 10 hours before the vulnerability was announced, which increased into the thousands within 45 minutes after the announcement, expanded into the hundreds of thousands within 2 hours, and then accumulated into the millions.
-
Japan’s banks, airlines, railways and government websites are most obviously affected, and several European countries were also the first to shut down some websites. Governments in various countries require system inspections, installation of patches, and increased network security vigilance.
